7.8-magnitude quake kills more than 500 in Turkey and Syria
A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.9 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday, killing hundreds of people and injuring many more as buildings collapsed across the region, triggering a search for survivors trapped in rubble
The quake, which hit in the early darkness of a winter morning on February 6, was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon.
Turkey’s disaster agency said 76 people had been killed, and 440 hurt, as authorities dispatched more than 1,000 search and rescue volunteers to the affected area and declared a “level 4 alarm” that calls for international assistance.
Syrian state media said more than 100 people were killed and dozens injured there, most in the provinces of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia, where numerous buildings had collapsed.
*** TRIGGER WARNING : photos and videos of destruction and people trapped in the rubble ***
Photos and videos that show the true scale of the disaster are circulating on social media, where netizens and world leaders have expressed sympathies and solidarity with the the citizens of Turkey and Syria.
Turkey’s vice president Fuat Oktay said the official death toll from the quake as of 10:00 AM local time stood at 284 people, while 2323 people are injured and 1712 buildings have collapsed. Authorities fear thousands more are still trapped under the rubble.
Most of the country is located on the Anatolian tectonic plate, which sits between two major plates – the Eurasian and African – and another minor one, the Arabian. As the two large plates shift, Turkey is essentially squeezed, experts say.
That means quakes and tremors are a fairly common experience. The country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) recorded over 22,000 in 2022.
And many are deadly – the worst on record a 7.6 magnitude earthquake which struck İzmit in 1999, killing more than 17,000 people.
